TERRAFORMING TERRA
We discuss and comment on the role agriculture will play in the containment of the CO2 problem and address protocols for terraforming the planet Earth.
A model farm template is imagined as the central methodology. A broad range of timely science news and other topics of interest are commented on.

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

The Complex and Frustrating Reality of Recycling Plastic

The first problem with plastic is that it is way too cheap to produce. The economic solution is to tax it and do this progressively over twenty years so that every manufacturer can see that trend and its impact.

Into that we throw the potential for market withdrawal as well. All this telegraphs to the market that we as consumers are prepared to accept alternatives and to work with them. Put another way, a carbon tax on oil is meaningless when it merely adds pennies to the manufacturing cost of all products. It is quite another matter when it causes selling process of such goods to soon double.

What is important is that all disposable plastics must be replaced by disposable biodegradables this means that the price differential must be closed or no benefit will ever exist. It also must be done over enough time to allow industrial change....

Scientists aren’t sure how long it takes for plastic to fully
biodegrade—estimates range from 450 years to never, National Geographic
reported in its June issue, which is devoted to the mounting plastic pollution problem. But we know enough to know that the staggering 9.2 billion metric tons of plastic produced since the 1950s isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. At this rate, our oceans will contain more plastic than fish by 2050.

Many now consider ocean plastic pollution an existential threat on
par with climate change, but it seems like it should be an easy one to
fix. Plastic is recyclable, after all, so why can’t we just recycle it?
It turns out it’s not as simple as it sounds.

Around two-thirds of the plastic that enters the ocean from rivers is carried by only 20 waterways—the majority of which are on the Asian continent,
where access to waste collection and recycling is often limited. Even
in countries with established waste management infrastructure, the
picture remains bleak: Less than 10 percent
of the plastic used in the United States is recycled, according to the
most recent Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data. Figures improve
for select plastic materials—for example, around 30 percent of
polyethylene terephthalate, commonly used to package household staples
like bottled beverages, condiments and personal care products, is
recycled—but even these rates remain woefully out of balance with our
increasing reliance on single-use plastic.

To make matters worse, fluctuating demand for recycled material and
consumer confusion about what is recyclable make it harder for US
collection programs to remain economical. If nothing changes, municipal
recycling programs across the country may be forced to scale back or
even shut down—hastening our collision course with a new paradigm
defined by toxic seas.

This grim reality begs the question: How can developing markets—which
now produce roughly half of the world’s plastic—hope to establish
effective recycling infrastructures if countries like the US are still
unable to get it right? What’s holding us back from recycling more
plastic, and what can we do to save our oceans before it’s too late?

The Cost of Confusion

For decades, PR campaigns and public service announcements touted the
ease of recycling. “Just move your hand over a few inches,” spokesman
after spokesman said, “and throw that plastic, metal or paper into the
recycling bin instead of the trash.”

Our oceans will contain more plastic than fish by 2050.

The reality of recycling is far more complicated—even in nations like the US, where curbside programs have steadily proliferated since 1980.
Neighboring communities can have vastly different recycling programs,
and educational campaigns that hinge on industry jargon often do little
to ease confusion for residents.

“Most people have the attitude that if they just put it in the blue
bin, it will get taken away and somebody will figure out what to do with
it, but putting something in the blue bin and actually recycling it are
two very different things,” said David Biderman, CEO and executive
director of the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA).

Motivated by good intentions, people throw everything from plastic
shopping bags to garden hoses into their curbside carts. According to
Biderman, on average, 10 to 15 percent of the material sent to US
recycling centers is not recyclable, and it eventually makes its way to
local landfills. “You may divert material on the front end, but it’s
still going to a landfill in the back end,” Biderman said. “Meanwhile,
someone is getting paid to do that processing.”

The results of widespread confusion can be prohibitively expensive
for municipalities—and wasted work time is only the tip of the iceberg.
Materials like those aforementioned bags and hoses can become tangled in
sorting machinery, causing plants to shut down the processing line
while workers remove obstructions by hand. If miscellaneous materials
are not sorted out, or if containers are contaminated by food waste
residue, the quality of the bulk scrap drops—and so does the price it
will fetch on the open market.

Less than 10 percent of the plastic used in the United States is recycled.

The landscape is complicated even further by the wide variety of
plastics now used to package foods, beverages and other household goods.
Packaging manufacturers increasingly favor more lightweight plastics,
which carry their own benefits. Namely, opting for lighter-weight
packaging means a manufacturer uses less plastic and can ship more
product in a smaller amount of space, cutting down on
transportation-related emissions. But lightweight plastics are often not recyclable, even though they appear to be, and more of them are entering the recycling stream.

“The goal of a recycling program is to generate saleable material.
Paper, plastic and metal can only be sold into the marketplace if it
satisfies certain standards, and one of those standards is that it not
contain other material,” Biderman said. “When the stream becomes
contaminated, the material may not be able to be sold, or it will be
sold at a lower price—which makes recycling programs less effective and
efficient if they’re not breaking even or making money.”

“On the Brink of Disaster”

On a partly cloudy afternoon in May, recycling haulers and processors
from across California converged on the Capitol building to warn
lawmakers about a “recycling crisis.” US recyclers process around 66 million tons of material every year, a third of which is exported. Until recently, China was the largest purchaser
of bulk plastic, paper and other recyclable materials leaving the
United States, but new regulations have recycling programs “on the brink
of disaster,” the haulers said.

Relatively low oil prices make it cheaper to
produce plastic from virgin material, further decreasing demand for
recycled feedstocks.

“We have a major challenge right now, because the largest export
market for American recyclables has basically been shut off,” Biderman
said. “India, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia have ramped up some of
their imports of American recyclables, but it’s still less than half of
what China was taking.”

This shift comes as relatively low oil prices make it cheaper to produce plastic from virgin material,
further decreasing demand for recycled feedstocks. “Plastic prices are
down across the board,” Biderman told us. “Material is moving in most
instances, but it’s moving at very low prices.”

California haulers are pushing for dramatic policy changes to help
them adapt and told lawmakers they must do more to educate consumers
about what is recyclable, but they aren’t the only ones feeling the
pinch. At the start of May, Portland, Oregon, was forced to raise its waste-hauling rates for the first time in five years as it struggles to find new buyers for bulk plastic and other materials.

Portland haulers transport recyclables to regional depots, where they
are sorted, baled and prepared for export. In years past, the modest
fees they received helped to offset hauling costs for residents, but
falling prices are leaving haulers in the red. “It hinges on the broader
lack of recycling markets,” Bruce Walker, Portland’s solid waste and
recycling program manager, said of the rate increase.

“The contamination issue is not solely responsible—there’s a vast
oversupply [of recyclables] in the US right now, so if you’re looking at
supply and demand, that contributes to lower prices—but contamination
certainly plays a role,” Walker said. “Residents can help the program by
keeping non-recyclable materials out, but it’s difficult to get that
message across with so many very similar types of plastics that enter
the household.”

The Role of Corporations

In the United States, the cost of recycling plastic and other
household waste falls on cities—and their taxpayers. But as municipal
programs seek new buyers for bulk scrap, many wonder whether the
companies that produce single-use packaging should bear more
responsibility for recycling it. “For too long, packaging companies have
been externalizing the costs of their packaging on local governments,”
said Biderman. “They’re changing how they package material and expecting
local governments to pick up the tab for it.”

“For too long, packaging companies have been externalizing the costs of their packaging on local governments.”

Walker agreed, underscoring the power of US companies to take the
financial heat off municipal recycling programs. “If American
manufacturers and brand owners were willing to package products using
recycled materials, we would be in a much better situation.
Unfortunately, those commitments aren’t readily apparent.”

That’s beginning to change, albeit slowly. Launched in 2003, The Recycling Partnership uses funding from companies like PepsiCo and Starbucks to improve municipal recycling infrastructure. It tests contamination reduction
and other best practices in the field with partner cities, such as
Atlanta, Chicago and Denver, and makes them available to communities
across the country. Last year, it joined the Association of Plastic Recyclers to get companies more actively involved. Their campaign, dubbed Recycling Demand Champions,
asks companies to recognize that their demand for recycled plastic is
vital to the health of US recycling programs and calls on them to
purchase more of the material.

Top brands like Target, Procter & Gamble, Campbell Soup Co. and
Coca-Cola signed on to the initiative and pledged to use more recycled
plastic, primarily to replace virgin material in industrial items like
trash cans, pallets and tote boxes. This type of application is typical
for plastic; unlike other materials such as aluminum and glass, plastic
is downcycled
far more often than it’s used for new bottles or other containers. So,
while initiatives like this one can help recyclers make ends meet and
ensure less plastic goes to landfill, they do little to stem the demand
for virgin plastic in packaging.

This is all positive, but businesses can do more—and their stakeholders are letting them know it. In response to mounting protest from NGOs, Coca-Cola pledged to “collect and recycle 100 percent of its packaging” by 2030, though Greenpeace says the company is still “dodging the main issue”
of its increasing plastic use and pledged to keep the pressure on.
Earlier this year, a group of 25 institutional investors with a combined
$1 trillion in assets called plastic pollution a clear corporate brand risk
and said they will engage consumer goods companies to fight the
problem—beginning with PepsiCo, Nestle, Procter & Gamble and
Unilever. Shareholder pressure also swayed McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts
to move away from polystyrene cups. In announcing victory in the foam cup fight, the shareholder advocacy nonprofit As You Sow declared, “Shareholders [are] stopping the flow of plastics at the source: giant global corporations.”

What You Can Do

Cities across the country are taking action to clean up their
recycling streams and preserve the viability of their programs.
California instituted a statewide ban on plastic carryout bags in 2016,
and cities from Chicago and Boston to Austin, Texas, have their own bag bans on the books. A handful of cities, including Portland, Minneapolis and Washington, DC, ban foam takeout containers. New York City may soon be the latest to ban plastic drinking straws, joining the likes of Seattle, Miami Beach and Malibu, California.

As with any other issue, citizens who are concerned about plastic
waste and recycling can contact their representatives and voice support
for similar legislation, although bans alone can’t solve the problem.
“How many items are we going to have to ban?” Walker asked rhetorically.
“That’s not a comprehensive approach either … though in my opinion
there needs to be some consideration in other cities with respect to
these items that pose problems to the recycling system.”

A massive problem like plastic pollution requires a multi-pronged approach that includes source reduction, reuse and recycling.

Even if you feel you know what is recyclable in your community, take
the time to visit your local recycling program’s website and review the
list of accepted materials. Make sure all recyclable materials are clean
and dry before placing them in the bin to avoid contributing to
contamination. For materials that are not accepted curbside, use
third-party searches like Earth911 or RecycleNation to find drop-off or mail-back recycling options near you.

If your community has yet to establish a curbside program—or if you
live, work or attend school at complexes that do not provide
recycling—step up to make your voice heard. Connect with the waste
management companies that service your area and contact your political
representatives, as well as your local solid waste services director and
staff, advised Jon Johnston, a retired EPA program leader who now sits
on the board of the environmental nonprofit Keep America Beautiful.

Beyond a push for legislation, the plastic problem calls for
individuals to take personal ownership of how they contribute.
“Single-use plastics are a convenience, but at a resource cost,” said
Lucas Mariacher, zero waste coordinator for the city of Phoenix. “The
goal should always be to minimize waste disposal by reducing resource
consumption [and] reusing resources. Recycling should really be the last
resort.”

The Bottom Line

Is recycling enough to stem the tide of plastic entering our oceans?
Not by a long shot, but a massive problem like plastic pollution
requires a multi-pronged approach that includes source reduction, reuse
and recycling—and we need everyone from governments and companies to
individuals in the game.

“I would caution you against expecting or wishing that there be a
recycling market for everything,” said Robert Reed, spokesperson for San
Francisco’s recycling and compost collection company, Recology. “The
consistent advice from environmentalists is ‘refuse’ single-use
plastics. Refuse plastic straws. Carry a metal water bottle and refuse
plastic water bottles … Refuse is the new R word.”

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About Me

18 years old, having cleaned out my HS library, I concluded the only ambition worth having was becoming a great genius. An inner voice cheered. Yet it is my path I have shared much to the Human Gesalt. Mar 2017 - 4.56 Mil Pg Views, March 2013 - Posted my paper introducing CLOUD COSMOLOGY & NEUTRAL NEUTRINO described as the SPACE TIME PENDULUM. Sep 2010 -My essay titled A NEW METRIC WITH APPLICATIONS TO PHYSICS AND SOLVING CERTAIN HIGHER ORDERED DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS has been published in Physics Essays(AIP) June 2010 quarterly. 40 years ago I took an honors degree in applied mathematics from the University of Waterloo. My interest was Relativity and my last year there saw me complete a 900 level course under Hanno Rund on his work in Relativity. I continued researching new ideas and knowledge since that time and I have prepared a book for publication titled Paradigms Shift. I maintain my blog as a day book and research tool to retain data, record impressions, interpretations and to introduce new insights to readers.